Pneumatic information-transfer system



May 26, 1970 A. FREEMAN 3,514,614

PNEUMATIC INFORMATION-TRANSFER SYSTll-M Filed Feb. 20, 1967 United States Patent 01 Ffice 3,514,614 Patented May 26, 1970 3,514,614 PNEUMATIC INFORMATION-TRANSFER SYSTEM Alfred Freeman, 94 Orlingbury Road, Isham, Northamptonshire, England Filed Feb. 20, 1967, Ser. No. 617,328 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Feb. 19, 1966, 7,388/ 66 Int. Cl. G01n 21/30 U.S. Cl. 250-219 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A system in which information coded on tickets and carried by a form of bullet is transmitted through a tube under pneumatic impulsion to a scrutinizing point at which the information is read by light-sensitive means and may be used to control machine operations or for other purposes.

The present invention concerns a pneumatic information transfer system, by which is here meant a system through which information is transmitted from one point to one or more others in coded, physical form under the impulsion of suction or of compressed air.

It will immediately be apparent that there are many environments in which systems of this character may be used, and the present invention is to be regarded as applicable to any such systems involving the use of at least one information-dispatch point and at least one information-receiving point.

This system, then comprises communicating tubing between the information-dispatch point(s) and the information-receiving point(s), a supply of informamation carriers movable along said tubing with a sliding fit, and means for inducing or forcing an air flow in the tubing to propel the carriers along the latter, the carriers and the tubing being cooperatingly formed so that the orientation of the carriers will be controlled during their travel, the carriers being adapted to receive a card, tape, ticket, plate or other element (hereinafter referred to as a ticket) which is punched or otherwise processed to bear information, and means being provided in the system for scrutinzing and registering information carried by passing carriers.

At this juncture, to assist quick appreciation of the invention I will refer to one version of the system, or part of the system, of the kind set forth above, in which information is to be fed to a collecting centre from a number of outlying dispatch stations. In this case the arrangement will be that the coded tickets carrying the information to be registered will be inserted in available carriers and introduced into the system at the various dispatch stations as and when the information is to be transmitted, will be pneumatically impelled to the collecting centre, and will be read by the scrutinizing means at a stage or stages in their travel, for example or at adjacent the collecting centre. They will travel at high speed under the air propulsion but, by virture of the controlled orientation of the carriers, the tickets will al- .ways be presented to the scrutinizing means in the correct posture despite this high rate of passage. Hence if the scrutinizing means incorporates electrical, electronic or other rapidly-reacting scanning means it will be possible to record a high density of carrier flow. More than this, the scrutinizing means will preferably be able to scan multiple data on any one ticket.

In any event, the aim is to impel these carriers, with tickets therein, through the tubing by means of suction or compressed air from a conveniently-sited source. By virtue of the relatively close fit of the carriers in the tubing, they can be propelled along the latter at a very high speed.

The scrutinizing means may comprise photocell units for scanning the holes in passing tickets, each unit comprising a light source arranged at one side of the tubing and a light-sensitive, e.g. selenium, cell in register with it at the opposite side of the tubing. The guide means between the tubing and carrier are so disposed in rela tion to the orientation of the components of the photocell units around the tubing that the code holes on a ticket passing this location will allow the beam from the light source to impinge on the corresponding cell disposed opposite it.

The holes will conveniently be at irregular and significant spacing along the ticket so as to produce the requisite pattern of impulses corresponding to the particular code concerned. Where more than one column of punched holes is used in the tickets, the arrangement may be that it is a reading across the ticket which determines the code reading. In this event, and in other situations in which a second succession of holes are read in the direction of travel of the ticket required to be read, the ticket may be provided with a further column of punched holes, in this case at regular intervals, and cooperating with another photocell unit, to release and reset the electronic or electric means in the scrutinizing means to provide for discriminating successive passing increments of the ticket.

The scrutinizing means may be set up to fulfill many and various functions. Thus, for example, the information received may be required for storage and reproduction in terms of segregated totals of different commodities, to control work progress, and so on.

It may for instance be used to unlock the memory in a computer in which signals are being store, or may incorporate a magnetic tape which can be used to trigger information from the computer in accordance with a particular pattern of accumulated signals.

Moreover the scrutinizing means may incorporate, or be associated with, electrical means to gather information not carried by the coded punched holes. In this latter regard, the tickets themselves may be cut at the edges with teeth or other formations which carry this ancillary information, and these projections can be used to mechanically trip control microswitches in the ancillary electrical apparatus.

It will be appreciated that the system according to this invention, and the specific details disclosed above, can be varied without a very wide range. Instead, for example, of serving multiple despatch points through the tubing with a single collecting point, the system is applicable to the feeding of information from a number of multiple receving or reading points, or from a single despatch point to a single destination. In the latter case, for instance, the carriers may be routed through a ring of reading stations.

To enable the invention to be more readily understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a typical situation in which the system of this invention may be employed,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a carrier equipped with a data-carrying ticket to be used in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 3 is a side view corresponding to FIG. 2, and

FIG. 4 is a cross section through tubing used in the system and illustrating the passage of a ticket-provided 3 carrier, the latter being shown in section on the line 1V-IV of FIG. 2.

It will be assumed that the system diagrammatically represented in FIG. 1 refers to an application of the invention to the progress control of operations in a boot and shoe factory. It is further assumed that in this factory shoes of different sizes and shapes are being fabricated, usually in batches, each in a cycle of successive operations such as lasting, closing, bottoming, finishing, stripping and so on. It is of great advantage in regulating the flow of work to have an up-to-the-minute record at all times of the work-in-progress situation in all sections of the plant, and it is an aim of the present invention not only to cater for this, even in a most complex plant with a high rate and density of output, but to collect a large amount of other control data, such as availability of lasts, accounting details, and so on.

In the very elementary system illustrated in FIG. 1 there are a series of information channels from different rooms, all connected to a common retort-or information collecting centre 1. It can be assumed, for example, that line 2 is connected to a despatch point in the lasting room of the plant, line 3 to a despatch point in the closing room, line 4 to the bottoming room, line 5 to the finishing room and line 6 to the last stripping room. It will be observed that all these outlying despatch points connect to a common line 7 which passes into the collecting centre 1. In turn this latter is connected through a line 8 to a suction source 9. The various lines 2 to 8 are formed by circular cross secion tubing, for example made of a plastics material with a small degree of flexibility enabling it to be readily installed. The arrangement then is that when suction is applied from the suction source 9 it prevails through all the lines 2 to 7, and an information carrier inserted at any of the despatch points will automatically be conveyed by the same suction into the collecting centre 1 and there arrested by a bafile. No specific means have been illustrated for implementing this arrangement, but these can assume a form similar to that described in co-pending application No. 32,867/ 65.

During its passage along line 7 the carriers pass the scrutinizing means which is to read the information transported by these carriers. This scrutinizing means has been diagrammatically illustrated at 10.

FIGS. '2 and 3 show in more detail one form of carrier and information-provided ticket which can be used in a system such as that indicated in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 di agrammatically illustrates the situation as this carrier and ticket pass by the scrutinizing means 10'.

The carrier concerned is moulded from a plastics material and comprises a cylindrical body 11 from which extend spaced upper and lower frames 12 and 13 for retaining a ticket inserted between them. This head 11 is formed with lateral guide fins 14 the function of which is to ensure correct orientation of a carrier passing through the tubing of the system. Referring to FIG. 4, it will be observed that this tubing, here designated 15 is provided at diametrically opposite points around its internal circumferential longitudinal guide grooves 16 to receive the guide fins 14 of the carriers. It will also be observed from this figure that the carrier head 11 has only a very small clearance from the inner wall of tubing 15 as have the fins 14 from grooves 16. This enables the carrier to present a relatively large area for application of the suction from 9, and so the carriers to be used in large quantity at very substantial distances from this suction source without the necessity for an excessively powerful source.

The typical ticket shown inserted in the carrier in FIGS. 2 to 4 is designated 17 and it will be observed that this consist of a simple longitudinal strip, for example of a rigid or semi rigid material, such as metal, a thermoplastic sheet, or cardboard. In the case illustrated it is provided with three columns of punched holes respectively 4 designated 18, 19 and 20. The columns 18 and 20 represent the coded information and column 19, being a succession of regularly spaced holes, represents the resetting means. In use, all three columns are to be scanned and readings constantly taken across the ticket, the holes 19 having the function of resetting the registering means of the scrutinizing means at successive regular intervals.

FIG. 4 diametrically illustrates the three photocell units which may be used in the scrutinizing means 10 to scan the punched ticket holes in a passing carrier. Thus each of these units comprise a light source 21, 22 or 23 and arranged opposite these sources at the other side of the tubing 15, light responsive detector cells 24, 25 and 26. These cells are connected into the various circuits that they are to control. The FIG. 4 cross section is taken at a place where only one of the holes 27 in column 19 is in the effective zone, so that only cell 25 is here energized, the light beam from light source 21 and 23 being obturated by imperforate parts of the ticket.

To ensure that there is no spread of light from any one of the light sources 21 to 23 to columns of holes not particular to this source, the carrier is provided with upstanding ribs 28 forming light bafiles.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show a further feature which may be incorporated in the tickets used in accordance with the present invention, viz the provision of lateral projections 29 of a number disposition and size representing a code carrying information ancillary to that provided by the the punched holes.

The projections 29 can be used to operate microswitches in further information-reading equipment (not shown) provided in the scrutinizing means 10.

It will be observed from FIG. 4, that, in cases where it is proposed to use tickets with lateral coding projections such as 29, the tubing 15 will be provided with additional longitudinal grooves 30 to allow for the passage of these projections.

I claim:

1. A pneumatic information-transmitting system comprising communicatio tubing, a supply of information carriers movable through said tubing, and means providing air flow in said tubing to propel said carriers, wherein the improvement comprises the formation of the carriers each with a cylindrical guide collar having a close sliding fit in said tubing and an attached trailing mounting means including an elongated rearwardly extending slot for removably holding a coded ticket continuously edge-on to the direction of travel of the carrier through the tubing and such that the ticket is exposed to be scrutinized as it is being held by the carrier and moved through the tubing, means along said tubing with cooperating parts at opposite sides of the tubing, for reading and thus scrutinizing successive tickets as they move through the tubing on their carriers, and the provision of the carriers and the tubing with cooperating fin and groove formations to maintain the carriers and their mountings in correct disposition with respect to said ticket scrutinizing means.

2. A pneumatic information-transmitting system according to claim 1 in which the tickets used are punched with coded data holes, the mounting on each carrier comprises frames for clamping an inserted ticket to leave the holes thereof exposed, and the ticket scrutinizing means comprise at least one light sensitive unit including a light source and a light-responsive element arranged at opposite sides of the tubing.

3. A pneumatic system according to claim 2, in which ticket is formed with more than one longitudinal column of holes, and the scrutinizing means is set to respond to readings across the passing tickets.

4. A pneumatic system according to claim 3, in which the ticket-scrutinizing means comprises a plurality of light sensitive units, each including a light source and a responsive element located there-opposite, and the body of the carrier has at least one fin extending longitudinally therefrom and forming a batfie on said mounting to prevent light spread between adjacent columns of holes in a ticket on said mounting.

5. A pneumatic system according to claim 4, in which the ticket is formed with a further longitudinal column of holes, in this case regularly-spaced, for successive releasing and re-setting of the scrutinizing means.

6.; A pneumatic system according to claim 1, in which at least one of the tickets includes on at least one longitudinal edge thereof, projecting formations for providing ancillary information, and wherein the tube includes slots for receiving the projections as the tickets travel along the tube.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,507,916 5/ 1950 Lister.

3,096,882 7/1963 Tyler 3022 X 5 3,198,515 8/1965 Pitney 3022 X 3,178,178 3/ 1965 Zeutschel 3022 X 3,293,414 12/1966 Barcia 3022 X 3,295,662 11/1967 Grosby et a1. 243-16 X US. Cl. X.R. 

